


Which is Real?

by Souyoosk



Series: Which is Real? [1]
Category: Persona 4, Persona Series
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-02-05
Updated: 2013-04-02
Packaged: 2017-11-28 07:03:11
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,514
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/671621
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Souyoosk/pseuds/Souyoosk
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Souji is living on his own in a city his parents dumped him in the year before to do their jobs and move around without impacting his life too much. He lives alone with his cat and doesn’t really have anyone he can call a friend until he meets Yosuke one night and their friendship becomes unshakable. But when dreams of an alternate reality start to cause Souji to question what is real or not, will his relationship with his friends in the ‘real’ world stay true or will he lose them all in the ‘dream’ world he thinks is fake?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Part 1: The almost crash and a weird dream

The empty apartment echoed with the silence that came with the territory when Souji Seta stepped into his home. The carpets and furniture were immaculately clean for a teenager on his own. He placed the grocery bags on the small table meant for three and only used by one. All of the food he had bought was put away in its proper place slowly in order to draw out the process and waste time. It was five ‘o’ clock in the afternoon when he started dinner, his homework all completed in a timely manner before. By six thirty, dinner was made and half eaten. After living on his own for a few weeks, Souji had learned how to make just enough leftovers for lunch the next day.

As he was putting away said food, there was a nudging and then a brush of fur as his cat meowed for her dinner. With a fond smile, Souji picked up the gray tabby in his arms and held her close. “Looking for some milk Mikuru?”

She meowed an affirmation so Souji began to look for the milk in his refrigerator. He pulled the carton out and sniffed the contents. He turned his head away from the foul stench immediately and dumped the rancid milk into the sink. _How could I have not checked the expiration date on the milk? I must have been busy getting things ready for school._

“Oh well, looks like I’ll be going out again to get you your dinner. I’ll buy us some snacks while I’m out.” Souji gave Mikuru a grin before setting out into the humid night.

The trip to the convenience store down the block was pretty boring. He bought milk, some cat treats, and an ice cream for the trip home. The background noise of the city had long been ignored by Souji. He much rather preferred the gentle silence of his uncle’s town. Although he had only stayed once during golden week to visit with his young cousin, Nanako, Souji had fallen in love with the sleepy town of Inaba.

“Watch out!” A loud cry from a teenager on a bike snapped Souji from his revelry. The brunette teen had lost control of his bike and was heading straight toward the dumpsters not too far from where Souji was standing. Any normal and sane person would have stood back to protect themselves, but in that brief instant, he reached out to grab the guy.

Souji was almost pulled forward himself, but he managed to drop his weight backward which enabled him to save himself from falling forward. The other guy wasn’t so lucky. The force of Souji’s pull had caused him to fall directly on his tailbone. He rubbed it ruefully while gazing at the bike that had slid in the garbage can along with the groceries he had in the basket.

He looked up at Souji with a wry and bitter smile, “Well, thanks for the save, man. It’s about time I got another bike anyway. My mom’ll flip when she hears about this.”

Souji found himself smiling too as he offered his hand to the other. “I bet. Do you want some help saving your bike and groceries?”

“Sure. I’m Yosuke Hanamura by the way. Just moved here a few days ago from the sticks. Would you believe that the school there would start renovating this year and kick all the students out to other schools? What kind of place does that?” Yosuke chuckled and accepted the hand up gratefully.

Souji gave a polite smile back, “Souji Seta. Where are you from?”

The teens began to pick at the salvageable groceries from the crash and Yosuke picked up his bike with disgust as he explained. “Originally, I’m from this town but my dad became the manager at Junes in Inaba. I lived there for a year and now all of a sudden they decide to redo the school and transfer all of the students to the school in this city.”

“That’s pretty weird.” Souji chuckled. There was something nagging at him to remember, but he couldn’t place what it was. _It must not be that important then._ “And my uncle and cousin live in Inaba. I visited him last year during golden week. Not the quiet rural town type, huh?”

“Not really.” Yosuke looked slightly disgusted at the thought. “Well thanks for helping me out man and saving me from a painful crash. We should probably be getting back since it’s already late.”

Souji nodded, not having more to say. The strange pair walked side by side for a while in silence. Normally, a silence between strangers after the first meeting would be awkward, but Souji and Yosuke felt completely at ease. Souji felt like he could really relate to Yosuke and that he wanted to know the other more. Yosuke was feeling the same way as he glanced at the gray-haired teen. There was something alluring about the self-confidence Souji held that intrigued Yosuke.

As the pair approached the apartment complex, both started walking toward the entrance at the same time. They shared a look and embarrassed smiles. Yosuke spoke first, rubbing the back of his head. “So you live here too? What floor?”

“Fourth. You?” Souji was extremely amused at the way Yosuke acted. He seemed pretty girly to Souji, but he had a feeling that Yosuke wouldn’t take that too well.

Yosuke  grinned, “I’m just a floor above you. Maybe we’ll run into each other in the morning. School starts at eight, when do you leave the house to go-oh, um…”

Souji raised an eyebrow, not knowing why Yosuke had left off in the middle of his sentence.

“Well, you know I’m a student, but you look like you could work or go to school…” Yosuke blushed and stuttered a bit before Souji interrupted him.

“I go to school, yes. Actually I believe we go to the same school. My teachers mentioned that there would be some transfer students coming.”

Yosuke turned even redder than before, “W-why didn’t you say that before?!”

“I just remembered.”

Yosuke sighed, “Man, I got all embarrassed for nothing. Well, I have to go put this thing in the bike racks. Jeez, I shouldn’t even lock it up with the shape it’s in. I’ll see you tomorrow, Souji. What time do you want to meet down here to head to school?”

“Is seven-thirty good for you?” Souji stood by the door to the complex.

Yosuke gave him a wide grin, “Sound good to me, partner!”

Souji chuckled and entered the complex, freezing a few steps in when he heard voices in his head that weren’t his own. _Thou art I… and I am thou…_

There was nothing else, no one else around. _I must have heard something. That voice could not have been in my head unless it’s my mind telling me I need to sleep._

Souji rode the elevator up, leaving milk out for Mikuru who had disappeared under a piece of the furniture to sleep. Souji himself was exhausted between the unexpected trip and getting ready for school to begin. He sunk into his bed gratefully, hoping for nice dreams and an easy day at school the next day.

 

 _Souji stared out from the train window, watching as civilization slowly slipped by. He was heading to his uncle’s house to stay for the school year since his parents were travelling abroad for work._ But wait, they let him stay in the city. Why was he heading to Doujima’s house?

 _After awkward introductions and a car ride that had made him feel really strange, Souji made it to the bedroom he was to stay in for a year. It was bare of anything except a few essential things Doujima had picked up for him. Souji, tired from the trip fell right asleep after eating a quick dinner with the Doujimas. Strange dreams haunted him. A blue room in a Hurst called the Velvet Room and a figure in the shadows that he couldn’t quite touch._ Souji resigned to letting this other self of his go through the motions. It was just a dream anyway. What could it hurt?

 _The next day at school, it was raining pretty hard. Nanako walked Souji part way to school having to run back to her own. Just as Souji was coming up at the school, Yosuke rides by on a bike, veering out of control into a garbage can._ The dream-Souji did nothing, but the real Souji, the one that had just met Yosuke, yelled at his other self to help the poor guy out.

_The school day wore on as Souji had the pleasant experience to meet Mr. Morooka. He yelled at the class all day and cursed too. He hadn’t experienced that at any of the other schools he had been transferred to over the years. His voice grated on him, but eventually the classes changed. The chatter of the students about his arrival was beginning to be annoying. Every year this happened and every year the students would go crazy over the ‘new guy’ or the ‘transfer student’._

_After classes ended, two girls, Chie and Yukiko, offered to go to Junes with Souji after classes. They left after the temporary call to the teachers during which some police sirens were heard going past the school. Everyone forgot about the transfer student. Even Chie was busy with Yosuke who had returned her Trial of the Dragon kung-fu movie broken with the promise to replace it when he could. He was promptly kicked in the groin and left to roll around on the ground in pain._ All dream-Souji did was stare as his new friend lay in pain and the two Inaba girls toted him out.Souji wanted nothing more than to offer the guy a hand up and ditch the two curious girls, but this was not under his control.

_As they were on their way to Junes, the three teens came across a crime scene. Doujima was heading the investigation and shooed them away so that they couldn’t see anything. Souji felt a twinge of curiosity, but kept his questions to himself. His uncle was a no-nonsense kind of guy and there was no way he was getting any information out of him._

_At home, Nanako prepared dinner for only two, knowing that her father wouldn’t be home till late. Souji helped with the dishes afterward, settling down to watch TV with his cousin with a cup of tea after they finished. Doujima walked in a few minutes into the show, tired, demanding that the channel be changed to the news._

_On the news, a local murder was being covered. Souji briefly wondered about his well-being, but wasn’t truly concerned about it. His guardian at the moment was a cop after all. The murdered woman was a local television anchor who had an affair with Mayumi Yamano’s husband, Taro Namatame. The now divorced couple had alibis and were not top suspects in the murder. The camera switched to a girl in the Inaba school’s uniform with her face blurred out and her voice altered. She retold how she found the woman hanging from the antennae of the house. Doujima grumbled about them finding her before falling asleep on the couch._

_Souji made sure that Nanako was alright before going to bed himself. The next morning, Yosuke got himself stuck in the garbage can. This time, Souji did help him out and they talked before school started. That was the day that Yosuke treated him at Junes and it was the night that Saki Konishi disappeared and turned up dead a day later. It was also the night that Souji had found out that he could stick his head into the television._ Souji was surprised and amused that he had an imagination to come up with something like that in his subconscious.

_The whole school was buzzing with gossip of the midnight channel and Saki-senpai’s death. Yosuke was horrified but he was also suspicious of the midnight channel itself. With Yukiko working at the inn her family owned, Chie, Yosuke and Souji decided to check out a larger TV in Junes to see if they could actually enter that one as well. They didn’t actually believe him until he stuck half his body into the TV. Things went downhill from there. Chie freaked out, Yosuke’s bladder was ready to explode, and they all managed to fall into the TV world with no way out._

 

Souji’s blaring alarm clock woke him up at six in the morning. The dream had ended just like that. He briefly wondered about the people in his dream. Normally, the faces were all blurry and not recognizable, but in this dream, he could have described their faces perfectly. It almost seemed real.

He shook his head of the absurd thought. It was just a crazy dream. _It was probably just a product of the adrenaline from yesterday’s incident with Yosuke. And as interesting as that dream was, everyone would think I was crazy if I told them. I’ll just keep this to myself for now._

Souji got ready for school. Bracing himself for the coming week, he remembered that he had already made a new friend. Things in the _real_ world were more positive than the one of his dreams. _I’ll forget about it in a couple days anyway._


	2. Chapter 2 Hey wait, I recognize them!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Souji is thrust into a lot more drama than he would have ever asked for and it all begins on the first day....

Souji was outside and waiting for Yosuke before the time they had agreed on. The sun was just beginning to touch the city as Souji thought about last night’s dream. He still remembered it vividly and the amount of detail was amazing for a dream. What bothered him the most was how real the dream felt. _Not that it would ever be real. I was aware of it being a dream anyway so I just need to forget about it. It’s no big deal._

“Hey Souji!” Yosuke came out of the door to the apartment complex yawning. “Wow, you didn’t have to get out here so early. How long have you been waiting?”

“Not long. Besides, I don’t want to be late and being early is better than being on time.” Souji smiled and the uncanny pair began walking the five blocks to their school.

Yosuke thought on that for a few steps, then smiled and shook his head. “You seem the type to do exactly that.”

“What type is that then?” Souji smirked at his new friend, causing Yosuke to blush. He liked the way that the brunette was prone to embarrassment at the tiniest of things. It was cute.

While Souji was thinking about how the blush on Yosuke’s cheeks made him ten times cuter, Yosuke was struggling to find a way to explain what type his friend was. “W-well you are kind of a gentleman I guess.”

Souji pretended to look affronted, but he was really amused at Yosuke’s answer. “Kind of? My dear sir, I _am_ a gentleman.”

Yosuke looked at the gray-haired teen, puzzled for a moment. He realized that the otherwise stoic-looking Souji was making fun of him. He couldn’t help the grin that spread across his face even though he had nothing witty to come back with. “Indeed. But what is a gentleman to do when he is…shoved spontaneously!”

Yosuke hip checked Souji a bit, jostling him over as they stepped onto the school grounds. Unfortunately, Souji had been shoved into wrong teacher. It was Morooka aka King Moron. Yosuke tried to hide his face, but he was caught immediately.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing Hanamura? Don’t you have anything better to do than roughhouse at school? I know you are from the city, but that doesn’t give you the right to act like…” Morooka continued to rant at Yosuke while Souji openly stared, startled at the man. Yosuke assumed it was because King Moron was the only teacher he knew that cursed more than teens. However, Souji was staring so impolitely because of his dream. Every detail was the same down to the cheesy suit he wore and the way he had his hair parted. _No, I must have seen him somewhere before. Dreams are just processed information. He must be from Inaba if he knows Yosuke. I must have seen him while at my uncle’s house._

Souji had himself convinced of this and snapped out of his thoughts to save Yosuke. “Excuse me, sir. I am extremely sorry for bumping into you. It was half my fault too. Please excuse us but we need to find our class before school starts.”

Morooka grunted something like ‘slutty city kids’ before leaving the pair behind to go to the front office for a teachers meeting.

Yosuke’s jaw was hanging as he stared at Souji. “Wh-what…how did you do that? Morooka- you just got the biggest hardass to back down. Dude, you’re _amazing_.”

“Well we really need to get to class. What’s your classroom number?” Souji pulled Yosuke along by the elbow when he didn’t start walking.

Yosuke thought about it for a second, not realizing that the hand that had pulled him along was still holding onto him. “I’m not sure yet. They’re squeezing us all into the gym to assign class numbers to us. Do you mind if we exchange emails so that we can keep in touch easier and maybe meet up during lunch? I-if you don’t have any other plans.”

“I don’t at the moment.” Souji repressed a laugh, but a smile slipped out despite his restraint. He pulled his phone out of his pocket and exchanged it with Yosuke. “Maybe I’ll even share some of my homemade lunch.”

“Wh-what? That’s so girly dude. I am not eating some of your lunch.” Yosuke blushed again and Souji couldn’t help but stare at how it fit Yosuke so well. That just made Yosuke’s blush turn darker. “Well, we should be getting to class before school starts. I’ll see you at lunch then?”

“See you.” Souji watched Yosuke for a few moments before shaking his head and walked to his class.

Souji’s classroom was full of chatter as the students sat in their desks, waiting for the teacher to arrive. There was still a good five minutes before class was supposed to start so Souji sat in his desk and idly listened to the conversations around him. While Souji was widely liked by teachers and students, he didn’t have anyone that he’d call a close friend. _Although that’s not entirely true. I was close to Jiro-san last year. He’s gone off to college someplace pretty far though._

Souji was brought out of his inner thoughts when their homeroom teacher, who was also the basketball coach, came into the classroom. The bell hadn’t rung just yet, but he addressed the class anyway. “Good morning everyone. I know you are all excited about the new students coming in this year and things will be a little crazy for a while. We’ve had to squeeze a lot more seats into each classroom and usually that’s not a good thing for you. It will mean though, that you have to do a lot of studying on your own, but we’re helping out fellow high schoolers. Anyway, I need a student to volunteer to go fetch the incoming students.”

No one’s hand went up. Usually, there would always be the one student who volunteered for anything and everything. _Not this time._ Souji sighed, his hand the lone member in the air. His teacher grinned, “Mr. Seta, I see that you are taking the initiative. The group that is due in this classroom should be in the gym.”

Souji walked out of the room, taking the hall pass with him into the empty hallway. Souji let his mind wander while he walked toward the all too familiar gym. It brought back memories of playing basketball with the team last year. Jiro-san was the team captain and was the one that initially convinced Souji to play the sport in the first place. Jiro had taken it upon himself to take the first-year under his wing and teach him how to play basketball. Jiro was ecstatic to find out that the tall teen was a natural at it.

Their friendship began fast after that. Jiro dragged Souji to places and had him hang out with him all the time. At first, Souji had been wary of this popular guy that was trying so hard to become his friend, but after awhile, Souji became used to the easy-going basketball player.

Souji woke out of his revelry when he stood in front of the gym doors. He went into the gym, expecting more chatter from idle students, but everyone was silent and Souji easily picked out the culprit. Mr. Morooka. He was keeping a stern eye on all of the students. When he spotted Souji, he immediately started running his mouth off. “So it’s you again. Goddamn it took you forever to get here. Now you’re gonna make all of these assholes late because you wanted to take you damn time getting over here. Now show these assholes to the classroom. I’ll be seeing you all in third period so don’t get cocky on the first day and think you can skip to go see some girls.”

When Morooka left the building through a different door, Souji sighed. The class began talking and raising clamor immediately. “Hey, who are you?”

“We have such a cute classmate this year.”

“You should let us ditch.”

Souji got a little irritated and raised his voice, “Quiet. Please.”

Everyone shushed up, but one person was trying to see over other heads. The brunette hair looked familiar, but Souji focused on the group as a whole. “I don’t care if you talk, but keep it quiet so we don’t get in trouble.”

Souji began leading the group back to his class, but it wasn’t too long before he felt a tap on his shoulder and then an arm reaching across his neck, “Hey partner!”

Souji grinned at his friend. “I thought I saw some familiar brown hair.”

“Oh yeah, is it that noticeably different?” Yosuke blushed, happy that Souji had been able to pick him out of the crowd. When he realized that his train of thought was extremely girly, Yosuke blushed some more and changed the subject. “So got any friends in the class already? Y-you know somebody that’s not transferring.”

Souji chuckled softly, “No, the only real friend I had went to university this year. I have teammates on the basketball team, but a lot of them are on it for competitive reasons and don’t like that I’m good or that I play for fun.”

“That’s too bad, but why would they resent you so much for just liking it instead of playing competitively?” Yosuke was really beginning to admire Souji for the amount of skills the gray-haired teen seemed to posses.

Souji shrugged, “The third year I knew, Jiro-san, he made me team captain before he left.”

“Wouldn’t that make them jealous?” Yosuke gave Souji the same quizzical look that Souji was giving him.

“Why?”

Yosuke sighed, leaning on Souji a bit, his arm still slung across Souji’s shoulders. “Because being team captain is a big deal. How good are you?”

Souji shrugged his shoulders nonchalantly. He didn’t really know and didn’t care. He wouldn’t have even gone for the second year if Jiro-san hadn’t practically forced it on him. Souji noticed that Yosuke’s arm was still resting on his shoulders which must have been a feat to be comfortable since Souji was a few centimeters taller. He grinned. “Is your arm okay like that? You’re a little too short for that to be comfortable.”

Yosuke’s face went completely red and he jerked his arm back. “Uhhh…well, I um sorry? It wasn’t uncomfortable for me, but if it was for you-”

“No, no.” Souji laughed. He was usually very quiet, but somehow Yosuke managed to bring out Souji’s emotions. “Oh, here we are.”

Souji opened the door for the Yasogami students and waited until they all entered until returning to his seat. The teacher introduced himself to the new students and began his lecture on what he expected from the students this year and when a student asked about the basketball team, the coach/teacher ranted for half an hour until the bell rang for break. Souji was relieved to have that class over with though.

“Hey partner, some of your new classmates want to meet you since I took up all the time on the way here.” Yosuke didn’t look apologetic when he talked to Souji, but when the girls glared, he backed away with hands up.

Souji sighed inwardly. He was always quite popular with the girls, but this usually lead to more problems than most guys would believe. For one, he could feel the glare of his fellow male classmates very distinctly. Although, Yosuke didn’t seem to be jealous at all when he was standing next to Souji. He was talking to some of the girls cheerfully while Souji scanned the classroom, avoiding eye contact with everyone as best as he could. His eyes flew open wide when he saw two girls from his dream the night before. Chie and Yukiko were standing a little farther back, talking animatedly to each other. They looked exactly the same from his dream except that the uniform was different.

Souji realized he was staring and decided to look elsewhere again. His gray eyes landed on another Inaba student who looked relieved to catch his eye. “Hi, Seta-san, I’m Kou Ichijo, but you can just call me Kou. I wanted to introduce myself because I’ll be trying out for the basketball team and I heard you were the team captain.”

“Nice to meet you.” Souji nodded. “You can just call me Souji and I look forward to seeing you at tryouts. You know to go to the Westside gym right?”

Kou looked confused, “I heard from another student it was at the east one. From Shiro-kun.”

Souji sighed, “I thought it might be him.” Souji lowered his voice, unaware of the way people stared as he whispered in Kou’s ear. “Listen, he’s a huge jerk and mad at me because the last captain put me in charge. If he tells you anything else, just ask me about it, okay?”

Kou nodded seriously, then laughed, “Thanks for the talk Souji.”

As Yosuke slid over and asked what was up, Souji could feel an intensely heated glare from someone across the room. He knew who was staring him down as he told Yosuke that he’d tell him about it on their way home from school. All of this was getting to be a little much for Souji’s liking. He was having weird dreams that seemed to affect his life in a weird way, Shiro was out to get him for being captain, and Souji had a feeling that this was just the beginning of it all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whew sorry this took so long. I’ve been trying to balance a lot of things and went through a huge bout of complete lack of motivation due to personal reasons. Anyway, hope you enjoy!

**Author's Note:**

> Welp, here's the first chapter. I'm trying to work on the second chapter as I am posting this now. As far as I know, this is going to get pretty lengthy and maybe I'll pull on your heartstrings on the way there. Thanks for reading! I hope that you stick around~


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